


Curiosity War

by hikarimew



Category: Fate/Grand Order
Genre: Gen, Lots of Other Characters - Freeform, i can't tag them all
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2018-06-08 11:55:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6853609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hikarimew/pseuds/hikarimew
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mashu accidentally sparked the curiosity of the wrong women, unleashing hell onto her poor Master and they incessantly try to find out about his past, dragging several other servants into this mess.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sparking Curiosity

It was Mashu who had gotten curious first. After all, she often asked her beloved senpai to talk to her about the world, how it had been before everything went to hell and they started on their mission to fix the timeline and keep humanity from getting wiped out. So it was only natural she was the first to notice that Gudao never once spoke of himself. Who he had been, where had he lived, how had his life been, before coming to Chaldea.  


So, she asked. He'd never really denied telling her anything before, so he surely wouldn't mind this too, right?

"Um, senpai... I was wondering. What did you do, before coming to Chaldea?" They had been discussing different types of work, so it was a good moment to ask, she figured.

"Me? I-- Uh-- Well-- I think Gilgamesh is calling me, asking for more wine!" (He wasn't.) "I'll talk to you more later, Mashu!" And just like that, he fled the room, leaving his  
adorable kouhai confused.

\-- 

Later, as always, happened the so called "Kitchen Wars", where Mashu, Kiyohime, and occasionally Tamamo or Nero would gather to compete to see who would make the best boxed lunch for Chaldea's favorite (and only) master. However, Gudao's nervousness and flimsy excuse from earlier gnawed on her mind. Kiyohime noticed first.

"What seems to be wrong, Mashu? At this rate, your lunch won't even be fit to be burned by my flames, much less given to Anchin-sama." She kept her voice as sweet as ever, even if her words were anything but.

"Well.... It's probably nothing." Mashu didn't really want to talk, knowing it was probably nothing, and definetly not wanting to get these other crazy women involved any further with her precious senpai. But Tamamo bothered, and Nero pleaded, and even Tamamo Cat started asking, so she told them of the abrupt way he'd cut off their conversation and ran away.

"Hm... Could he have had another woman in the past, maybe?" Tamamo suggested, being promptly shut down (a bit too violently) by the others.

It was surely odd, their master who always wanted to know more about them, and accepted anything they threw his way with open arms to have acted like that at such a simple question. In less than a minute, Tamamo no Mae and Kiyohime, much to Mashu's dismay. This had been exactly what she had been worried about.

\--

They decided to start by asking Roman if he knew anything. Or, alternativelly, if he could get them his files. After all, he was the highest ranking member of Chaldea (population him, one master, and far too many servants than should probably be kept in one place). He might know something.

"I don't really know anything." Well, there went that idea. "After all, Mashu met him before I did, we lost almost everything in the explosion, and he never talks about that." Roman seemed kind of sad (or maybe scared?) he couldn't help the group more. 

The girls did notice how it wasn't just to them he never spoke of his past at all, and it fired up their curiosity even more. After all, with all these servants here, who had such wildly varying relashionships with Gudao, surely there must be one who he'd talk to, even if he had to be coerced to, right? All they had to do was find the perfect Heroic Spirit for the job.


	2. The First Attempts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the girls start their search for a Heroic Spirit that can help them learn about Gudao's past.

Emiya was the first choice. He was usually always eager to help, sometimes to the point of coming off as a mother hen (Or, as Kiyohime cheerfully put it, a 'love rival'). He had also taken Mashu under his wing as a senior heroic spirit, so the girls assumed he'd be willing to help them in their mission.  
  
"Absolutely not."  
  
"Eh? Why not?" Tamamo decided to take the lead on this one, not really having missed how wary the archer (who never used a bow) seemed to get around women.  
  
"Because... I can completely relate to having a past you don't want brought up...." There was nothing but despair in his eyes remembering whatever it was that happened in his past, and it was obvious that not only would he not help, if they weren't carefull, he might even try to stop them.   
  
(Tamamo made a mental note to look into it later. It seemed amusing.)  
  
"S-Sorry to have bothered you, then!" Mashu had been pushed to the forefront by the others, probably by using her Kouhai Appeal, while the others fled, leaving her to do damage control.

* * *

 

  
  For some reason, Chaldea had a bar. One that the Servants generally worked together to keep stocked, and that had several regulars, with Drake being the most prominent.

  Since they had cornered Emiya near the bar, it guaranteed Drake overheard the conversation with hm, and thought it might be interesting to learn more about the latest person dragged into her 'crew', and thus, asking for a chance to try to get their Master's secrets herself. Plus, her plan involved drinking, and she was always up for drinking.

  It was simple. She'd invite Gudao over for drinks (something she always did), and, once he was hammered enough, get him to talk about his past. She, quite smugly considered it foolproof, starting to pour the drinks, and waiting for Gudao's tongue to loosen.  
 

  "Kiyohime's been so mean to me lately, Draaaake.... She thinks I had another girl or somethin'...." It didn't really take long to get him drunk enough to start whining, which meant it was time for her to finish him off.

  "Oh? Why would she think that, Master?" She asked, turning her back for a moment to get him another drink, just to make extra sure...

  .... And hearing a loud thud, finding him having passed out, face hitting the bar top ungracefully, and not even stirring from that.

  
  The girls decided Plan Drake was a resounding failure, and continued their search.

* * *

 

  
  Blackbeard was, oddly enough, their next idea. He was easy to convince, and for reasons they never understood, he actually seemed close to their Master. They spent a lot of time together working doujinshi that seemed really popular with some servants, granting them a lot of comissions and requests.

  Mashu was dying that Tamamo and Kiyohime offered pictures of her as payment for their plan, but was helpless to stop the japanese spirits.

  "Say, Master." Teach started later that day, when they were applying screentones to their latest doujin. Gilles (both of them) were paying enough to help him obtain the rest of the Mashu portraits da Vinci was selling that month, so it was an important comission for them. "I was thinking, for our next work, we take more from reality. Use our lives as inspiration! Make it easier to relate for our fans!"

  Gudao took a deep breath, putting both hands on Blackbeard's shoulders, staring him straight in the eye. "My friend. You know I deeply value your opinion for our projects. However, I am going to disagree! We should go the other way! Why limit ourselves with boring reality when we have the myths and fantasy of all people and cultures at our hands!? We need to expand! Go further than before!"

  
  "You are... Absolutely right, Master!" Blackbeard was completely fired up now, pushing Gudao away to grab at a nearby notepad, furiously jotting down ideas. "I can already feel the creativity flowing!"

  
  "Me too!" Gudao was furiously sketching at some rough storyboards as well, comparing notes and ideas to the pirate next to him.

  .... And, hiding just outside the door, Tamamo and Kiyohime were both dissapointed in Teach and impressed at their Master for having such a power with words, and Mashu simply wondered if she was free from the promise of giving Blackbeard pictured of herself now.


	3. Favours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> da Vinci's prices are legitimately soul-crushing, and asking Gilgamesh for things never end well.

  After a bit of brainstorming, the girls decided to try to go to da Vinci for help. Few servants had as much of a hold on their Master as she did, mostly because she had a hold on his wallet. Convincing her took a while, since after a certain incident involving Siegfried and a broken quartz, most servants had been expressly banned from getting anywhere near any of their resources, so it wasn't like they could pay her, and their plan involved a certain financial loss for her, if it worked.

  But they eventually reached an agreement, and the plan was set.

  "Okay, that's two hundred prisms for this month's tickets...." Gudao sighed, handing the green cubes over to da Vinci, whistfully staring at the portraits of Mashu hanging on the wall, that he was still unable to afford, even with the Gilles working overtime on farming.

  "Thank you for your purchase! Now, say, Gudao, a few of your servants were here earlier, and they convinced me to offer you a deal." Everyone had certainty the glimmer of this plan would be enough to convince Gudao. "Be more open to them about your past... And I'll lower the prices on the Personal Training portraits."

  One could easily see Gudao go weak at the knees at that, grabbing onto the shop's counter to steady himself, breathing heavily. It seemed as if his hopes that maybe, just maybe, the portraits weren't entirely out of his reach just yet.

  "This is too good to be true...." He sighed dreamily, before standing straight again, something having clicked in his mind. "Wait. It is too good to be true."

  "Are you saying I'm lying?"

  "I'm saying there's gotta be a catch. What's the discount?"

  And that, da Vinci couldn't escape.

  "One mana prism off per portrait."

  Despite the evident heartbreak, Gudao didn't say anything else, just turning around and walking out of the shop, feeling his dreams crushed yet again.

 

* * *

 

  The girls were wary of their next plan. There was a high level of danger, and an even greater level of potential humiliation. But there was one servant who Gudao regularly bent over backwards for, to the point of entire servitude, and it was Gilgamesh, or, as Emiya usually called him, "that asshole".

  Finding him wasn't hard. When not out on missions (The one time their Master was near him and not at his feet), he would be occupying the most comfortable couch in Chaldea, drinking wine from his endless supply, and generally being insufferable to anyone nearby.

  (Other servants had tried to move him and the couch to the bar area before, to 'keep his alchoholism away from the common areas, where the children can see', but a rain of Noble Phantasms to the face had put an end to that.)

  Naturally, Mashu was the sacrifice to talk to Gilgamesh, while Tamamo and Kiyohime watched from afar. She had better defenses, and no Divinity to affect that chain he liked using so much, they said. Of course, she couldn't explicitly say she was asking for a favour, because that was almost suicide, but after a draining, drawn out conversation, she'd somehow managed to convince him to try getting their Master to talk. Or maybe he just humoured her because, if he failed, it would be amusing to see how far they'd go. It was hard to tell with him.

  "Mongrel, come here." Gilgamesh had called out while Gudao had walked by later, carrying a number of red bones to add to the inventory.

  "Yes, King of Heroes?"

  "I require you to entertain me." This never ended well. "Depending on how you word them, tales of your undoubtedly sub-average infancy might even amuse me."

  "Hm.... My King, this is a story close to my heart, so I hope it entertains you/" Gudao cleared his throat before starting."

  "Long ago, the four nations lived together in haromy. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked...."

.......

  Several hours later, as Emiya was attempting to clean the wine bottles Gilgamesh left around, he was unfortunately roped into conversation with the king.

  "It seems I might have underestimated that mongrel after all." He'd started, and while Emiya really, really knew it was a bad idea to answer, he at least knew that Gudao could stop a fight should it happen. (He'd gained lots of experience in that department since the arrival of the indian brothers.)

  "And why would that be?" Emiya all but sighed out, hoping his tone might help the other get a clue that he didn't want to talk to him.

  "He was telling me of a war of magus he'd witnessed in his youth. " The red archer perked up at that, wondering if maybe the King of Heroes had managed to actually pry out his Master's past. "That they had organized into four elemental nations of sorts like that made things very complicated."

  "Wait. Elemental Nations?"

  "Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind, though the latter had been utterly wiped out."

  Emiya couldn't stop himself. He started laughing, dropping one of the bottles he'd been carrying. Even though an opening of the Gate of Babylon materialized above his head, it was hard to stop.

  "What's so amusing, Faker?"

  "That-- He was telling you the story of a cartoon. A fictional story. I remember seeing it on the television when I was alive."

  Gilgamesh's screams of rage could be heard all throughout Chaldea that day, and, for the first time, Gudao refused to show when called by the King of Heroes, hiding in France with Jeanne for a while.


	4. Observant Servants (Can't be used)

Well, if Gudao wasn't going to talk, at this rate, they were going to need a new approach. Fortunately, Tamamo had an idea.

"If he won't tell us, we just need someone who can figure him out without words! The new target would be someone with observational skills. If we can just get a thread to pull, he'll come clean easy!"

With Tamamo's words in mind, the first person they went to recruit was Andersen. He was brutal, sure, but he was better than none when it came to understanding people.

... Unfortunately, they couldn't find him anywhere.

"Doctor Roman said nobody used the rayshift today, so where could he be...?" Mashu wondered as they completed their third circuit of Chaldea, still unable to find Andersen anywhere. They did, however, find their Master looking incredibly smug, watching them looking around.

"Looking for anyone?" He asked, obviously aware that they were still not giving up and teasing them.

"Just wandering around and chatting!" Mashu nervously tried to cover for them, before Tamamo and Kyohime could actually say anything and ruin their chances at finding Andersen.

"Really?" Gudao raised an eyebrow at that. "Well, I was going to say that, if you were looking for Andersen, maybe, he's busy all day today. I gave him the last event off, after all, so he's with Rhyme, actually! They're marathoning the The Little Mermaid movies."

Oh, their Master was trully an evil one when he wanted to be. Everyone in Chaldea was aware of Rhyme and Andersen's endless fights (Mostly started by Rhyme) on the endings of his stories, with The Little Mermaid usually being the one most brought up.

The movies themselves weren't that long, but Andersen's despair over what Disney had turned his creations into lasted for a while after that.

 

* * *

 

 

Well, that plan had been a bust, so they decided Karna should be the next best thing. Even if his tongue was comparable to knives. But he had a kind and open heart, and through carefully keeping Tamamo and Kiyohime away, Mashu and her pure intentions to learning more about Gudao managed to convince him to help them.

Pity their timing was awful.

"Hey yo, Chaldeluxe!" Gudao greeted, raising his hand for a high-five. Karna didn't leave him hanging. His reply, however.

"Mashu forbade you from using that greeting." He reminded their Master, and, from their girl's hiding spot behind the door, Mashu was silently fuming.

"Eh, she's not here."

"But _I_ am." And it was then the girls realized their mistake, because the servant their Master had been talking to was Arjuna, and they just put him in the same room as Karna.  
  
The tension was obvious and immediate, barely restrained. If this had been a manga or something, lightning would be striking in the background, setting everything on fire.

And, in the corner, would be Gudao, stoking the flames.

"SO! Three minutes, no weapons, no breaking any furniture sounds good? Great! Ready... Go!" And, at his command, the two brothers were fighting with their bare hands, while Gudao quickly moved closer to the walls to avoid getting caught in the middle of that.


	5. Children are a weak spot (That shouldn't be used)

The three girls were starting to run low on ideas. Mashu was half glad that it seemed like the others were finally going to drop it, but half sad, since she couldn't ever deny that she really, really wanted to know more about Gudao. Her senpai was someone who was absolutely a normal human, but despite that, there was just something about him that won anyone over, given enough time.

You couldn't blame the sheltered girl for wanting to understand more.

But instead of trying to find new ways to extract the information she wanted, she was in the kitchen. Lunchtime was always a terrible rush, and with Kiyohime running off the past few days poor Emiya had grown overworked and understaffed. Helping with a few meals was Mashu's way of trying to make it up to him, and the rest of the always growing army of starving heroic spirits.

Right now Mashu was simply helping prepare the ingredients, making sure they weren't too far over budget (They always were), preparing the shopping list... All of this had to be done long before the lunchtime rush hit, in order to keep _certain incident_ s from repeating themselves. She would have just been dutifully following Emiya's orders, had she not spotted Nursery Rhyme trying to sneak away with some of the loaves of bread that had been bought for the day's lunch.

"Rhyme, you shouldn't do that!" Mashu gently scolded, deftly positioning herself between the book and the door, thankful she was in a good position to do so. She was well aware she wasn't the fastest person in Chaldea, and, to be honest, Rhyme could definitely outrun her.

"But Alice really needs snacks for the tea party! And Emiya has already said no to giving me the cakes, or macaroons, or pies, or candies..." Nursery Rhyme tried to explain, but Mashu remained firm, and ended up convincing the book to return the goods after much prodding.

One would have to wonder why she didn't get Jack, someone with actual presence concealment, to try and sneak food from the kitchen.

Mashu was ready to finally return to work when she heard Kiyohime's slightly wistful voice behind her. So she hadn't fled kitchen duties today.

"Children are always such a handful... Even though there are plenty here with white hair, so I can always imagine they're already mine and Masters's~! He loves children so much, I'm sure he'd be a great father...." Kiyohime rattled on, loosing herself in the usual fantasies of the sort, before perking up, eyes glinting. Mashu was starting to become familiar with the glint in the snake's eyes that screamed ' _I have a new plan!_ ', and she kind of wished she wasn't.

"Anchin-sama has a bit of a weakness to children, doesn't he? He always has such a hard time saying no... Spoils them, really. It's so sweet!" But despite her usual tone, anyone who was paying attention (That is, Mashu. The other ~~moms~~ chefs of Chaldea were too busy working on preventing a riot) could tell what she would say next.

"So, we should just get one of the children to ask!"

* * *

 

Finding an Assassin, by the very nature of the class, was hard. Even the most notable assassins were good at hiding themselves. Searching for one with Presence Concealment at the amazing rank of A+ was a special kind of masochism Mashu didn't know Kiyohime had, but there she was anyway, searching for the elusive assassin girl with single minded obsession.

Mashu was now beginning to understand how much of an annoyance Kiyohime could be if Gudao hadn't simply wholeheartedly accepted all her oddities and her presence. She wondered if there was anything that could have discouraged Kiyohime, and silently concluded that not even a river of fire might have been enough. She hoped it never came to that point.

Still, she wondered if maybe she should actually try to help. Tamamo had blown them off once she realized exactly how terrible finding Jack would be, claiming she had to take care of her tails, because ' _tails require even more maintenance than long hair!_ ', but made sure they knew to tell her first thing if Jack was successful in her mission. Mashu wished she had been as smart. Even though she was a demi-servant, Kiyohime's implacable pace was hard to match, and the guilt from abandoning the kitchen to it's terrible fate weighed her down.

Lunch passed with no luck. It was quite terrible, constantly passing by the cafeteria and it's delicious smells and the ever growing, ever more lound and demanding line, but there was no sign of the small girl there.

They expected to have some hope with afternoon tea, since despite being an agglomeration of grudges and abandoned souls and all that, Jack was still a British child. But that was futile expectation, much to Rhyme's eternal disappointment. Even when Jack showed up, she always tended to leave halfway in.

By the time dinner rolled around Mashu was hungry, tired, and more than ready to abandon Jack to Kiyohime, _if_ the snake girl ever did manage to find her. She wanted to rest in her bed, since no new singularities had popped up the past few days. She _deserved_ some rest. Even when not in the front lines, Mashu was hardly ever left behind due to requiring virtually no mana from Gudao, allowing some of their strongest allies to be fielded!

But naturally, the moment Mashu considering simply turning around and going to her room (it was right down the other hall, too, so close she could almost feel her bed!), she very nearly ran into Jack, who was wearing one of the adorable sweaters Vlad had knitted for her, when he was worried that she might be cold.

"Jack!" Mashu exclaimed, jumping a small bit, thanks to how suddenly the small girl seemed to have appeared right in front of her. "Where were you all day?"

"We didn't sleep too well last night, so Mommy let us stay on his bed the entire day to rest back up." Jack explained innocently, not seeming to notice both how much she'd startled Mashu and the mildly menacing aura Kiyohime seemed to be exuding by now.

"Aw, isn't your other Mommy the sweetest? You know, though, lately I've been thinking, and--" As if a switch had been pressed, all three girls froze in place for a moment.

After all, until the order is directed, every servant can feel when their summoner is starting to use a Command Seal. The seemingly endless flow of energizing, restraining, empowering mana from the seals was powerful indeed.

"Kiyohime, stop." The order wasn't magically enhanced by the command spells, Gudao quickly lowering his hand after saying that, but he might as well have used a command spell with how quickly the snake girl moved away from her intended target and tried, terribly, I might add, to cover up her plan.

"I wasn't going to do anything bad, Anchin-sama! I was just--"

" _I don't care._ " Gudao's voice was even the entire time, which just made the obvious anger in his eyes all the more striking, sidestepping Kiyohime as if she was barely there and moving to where Jack was, bending his knees enough so that he was on her level. "Now, Jack, Rhyme told me you skipped on another tea party you promised you'd attend. I already told you you can use the alarm clock next to my bed for things like this, didn't I?"

Every bit of tension seemed to vanish from Gudao when he started talking to Jack, scolding her softly. The change was so sudden even Mashu was surprised, despite still being the Servant with the longest time, the one who was guaranteed to be by his side in any singularity of any size.

He still surprised her, at times.

"Yes, mommy."

"Then let's go apologize to her, okay?" He straightened himself out now, offering Jack his hand and walking off, completely ignoring Mashu and Kiyohime, almost seeming as if he forgot them, until he reached the end of the hallway and paused, not even facing them.

"Oh, that's right. I already told Tamamo, but the same goes for you two. I don't want to see the three of you together for a while, at all. Don't make me use up my command seals." He threatened, before walking away, leaving Mashu and Kiyohime behind.


End file.
